What's Community of Grace All About?

Hmmm, that's a good question.  Maybe the best place to start is to tell our story.  Remember that old musical where one of the lines is "Hey kids, let's put on a show!"?  Well, that's kind of how Community of Grace started.  Most new churches are started by other congregations or by some large religious body.  They are planned and ready to go.  However Community of Grace started by simply asking a question.  In the summer of 2004, Rev. Dennis Sanders had an interest in start a new congregation.  Dennis began talking to friends around him to see if they were interested in becoming part of a new congregation that was welcoming to gays and lesbians.  A number of people said yes and with some circumstances that could only be interpreted as providential,  Community of Grace was born and held its first gathering on September 12, 2004.

In June of 2005, we became an official congregation affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  Since that time, we've been active partners within the larger denomination. 

  But enough of the history lesson.  You probably want to know why anyone should be a part of Community of Grace.  Maybe you have had a bad experience with people who call themselves religious and wonder how we can be any different.  You might be saying, "I don't believe in organized religion."  That's fine with us, because Community of Grace is quite disorganized.  We have people from all walks of life, with different viewpoints.  Some of us are Republicans and some are Democrats.  Some are theologically conservative, some are theologically liberal.  Some are just out of college and some are nearing their retirement years.  We have opinions on everything and we don't always agree.  However, we are united in the One who is called Jesus, the One who came to earth to be born a human and then lived among us.  He was put to death and then rose again.  It is this God who is with us, that is the glue that holds this church together-not a specific dogma or political viewpoint, but in Jesus, the Son of God and our Liberator.

Our Values

So what does Community of Grace hold near and dear to its heart?  Well:

• We are a Community.  Our name kind of says it all.  We are a gathered community who comes together to worship, pray, learn, laugh and cry together.  There is a verse in the Bible that sums this up perfectly:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

-Acts 2:42-47

Spirituality isn't primarily a solo activity, but something done together, in tandem with others.  There are no anonymous worshippers at Community of Grace.  Everyone is part of the the church family and welcomed in.  We are reminded that in baptism that we belong to God and are loved by God.  We strive to be a community that reminds everyone that they are loved by God.

• We practice hospitality. At Community of Grace we like to practice good manners.  We don't believe churches are to act like exclusive country clubs that exclude people, but instead welcome everybody regardless of who they are.  Many of us are dismayed by the rhetoric of some who tend to bar people from church for various reasons from not voting for the right person or because of sexual orientation.  When Jesus was on earth, he tended to have conversations with people from all walks of life.  He chatted with tax collectors, Samaritan women, the religious leaders of his day, Roman soldiers and the like.  We think that if Jesus could hang out with so many various people, then his followers should as well. 

• So, at Community of Grace know that we will welcome you, no matter who you are or where you are on the journey of life.  Heck, we might even invite you to dinner after worship, we are just that hospitable.

If you want to know more about how we practice hospitality, especially to the GLBT community, please go our "Open and Affirming" page.

• We Believe in Tradition not Traditionalism.  When some people here the word, "tradition" they think of old men issuing directives from a far a way place that has nothing to do with the age that we live in.  (That, or Jewish men in Russian accents singing and dancing ala Fiddler on the Roof.) 

However, we at Community of Grace don't think in those terms.  Tradition for us is finding ways to pass down the faith and have it engage our modern times.  We practice a worship style that has been used for centuries, but it is as modern as this website.  We practice Christian formation as the early church fathers and mothers did, working together to form critical-thinking people of faith.  Community of Grace is about pushing forward, headlong into the 21st century, while being anchored to the great faith of the path.

• We believe in Faithfulness not Fundamentalism.  In our day and age, we have a lot of religious people who place an emphasis more on being right than on being loving.  That's not Community of Grace.  As we said before, we are not dogmatic; we find it more important to be a loving community.  As followers of Christ, we seek to follow after Jesus to the best of our abilities.  We seek to be as radically inclusive as he was and to place an emphasis on being for others instead of ourselves.  

• At Community of Grace, it's important not only to believe in Christ, but to put those beliefs in to practice.  For us, beliefs mean nothing if we don't actually practice them.  The fancy word for what we do is discipleship.  We are learning day by day to become followers of Jesus.  Sometimes we slip up, but then that's why there is grace- we are loved by God even when we make mistakes.  So we go out and live boldly in the world as imperfect followers of Jesus. 

• We believe in Faith not Certainty.  There are those that think that religion in general and Christianity in particular, is around to give an answer to life's questions.  We don't think that way.  Many of us at Community of Grace are looking for a place where it's okay to ask questions instead of just getting answers, because sometimes the questions are more important than the answers.  

There are some who believe that to be a follower of Jesus is to arrive at a destination.  We tend to think that we are all on a journey and Jesus is with us along the way, giving us space to ask questions and enter into the mysteries of life and of God.

 

So, if you are someone who wants to gain wisdom in this journey called life and not a simple set of answers, then Community of Grace is for you.